Flames Of Love
by elixir of love
Summary: Damon rescued little Elena from a fire that killed both her parents and then adopts her. They quickly form a friendship and become closer with each passing day…and then too close. What happens when Elena finds herself crushing on the man she grew up with?


**Disclaimer:** I don't own it.

**Chapter one**

Elena was trapped in the house—surrounded by the fire. And she was alive, unlike her parents.

Damon knew it because he felt her fear, and he most definitely heard her blood-curdling screams._ It's too dangerous_, he kept telling himself over and over again. _You can't save her, you'll get yourself killed!_And yet, he couldn't stop thinking about that adorable, endearing six year-old girl he just met a week ago, all scared and teary-eyed now, screeching in terror.

He sighed and shook his head as if to clear that image off his mind. _You are _sooo_ gonna regret this. _The logical part of his brain kept telling him, trying to talk some sense into him. Well _think_, not _talk_. He ignored that nagging sound.

With that last thought he lunged into the house with his vampire speed; determined to find her and get her out of the house.

Elena Gilbert was simply terrified. She kept seeing the image of her dead parents in her mind. It was all too surreal. She closed her eyes, took a deep, calming breath and thought about her mom. Elena couldn't believe it—just a few hours ago, they were reading Pinocchio and laughing and playing around with each other. But now her mommy was gone. She was never going to see her again. Her mom would never hold her again. Never tuck her into bed and sing to her till she fell asleep. Another tear slid down her soft, tender cheek.

No. she couldn't think about those things now. That wasn't helpful at all. This was all just a terrible, terrible nightmare and she will wake up any second now, with her mom right beside her, comforting Elena and telling her that it was okay and everything will be fine, that it was just a nightmare.

She slowly opened her eyes. With a feeling of disappointment more than she should handle, she realized that no, this was not a nightmare. This was worse.

This was _real_.

Elena started blinking rapidly, repeating the process again and again; squeezing her eyes shut and then opening them again, hoping that this time it would be her mother's kind face she saw instead of the intimidating fire that was threatening to swallow and overpower her just like it did her parents. She started crying again, her sobs now coming in short pants. She felt like she couldn't breathe. _Good_, she thought. She wanted to faint, or better yet, die.

Damon checked all the rooms downstairs, but she wasn't there. So he got back to the staircase heading up to the second story of the house. There was fire everywhere.

Ugh. Why, _why _fire, of all things? His only weakness? Well, besides a stake, but that was not the point here. Damon growled a string of low profanities as he realized the screaming had stopped. Damn it! If her room was downstairs it would have been a lot easier for him to get her out. God, he hoped nothing bad had happened to her. That thought made him run even faster as he was flooded by worst case scenarios in his mind. But still, it was hard. He had to be careful, after all, or he'd be dead with her too. He finally reached the stairs. He didn't bother running up—there staircase was on flames, anyway—instead he jumped high and he was in the second story of the tiny house. _Hold on, I'm coming. _He had to do this. He owed it to the Gilberts. Not that that would have stopped him from coming into the house to look for the girl, of course. But it was important and almost necessary that he save her after all the kindness her parents had shown towards him.

Wherever her parents were, they were already dead; of that Damon was sure. Because all the rooms were now filled with flames as he saw and checked each and every one of them. Well, except one room at the end of the hall.

_Please be there. Please be there. Please be there._ He kept chanting those words over and over again in his mind.

Once he got to that last door, he let out a sigh of relief. He knew it was Elena's bedroom by all the cartoon pictures taped to the door and the name "ELENA" written in capital letters in the center. He opened a door—praying she hadn't decided to come out of there—and expelled another sigh he hadn't even realized he'd been holding, filled with relief when he saw that she was okay.

Elena lay in a small corner of the room, curled into a small ball; coughing and gasping for air because of the lack of oxygen, watching all the fire with wide, terrified eyes, shaking with fear. _This is it_, she thought. She really _was_ going to die. Not at all like the books and fairytales her mother had read to her. No happily ever after.

Suddenly, Elena's tear stained brown eyes traveled and landed to Damon's blue-green ones. Her eyes widened even more, if possible. She knew that man. He was in their house just a week ago. What was his name again? David? Or maybe Jason? Damon! But what was he doing here? Elena didn't care; she just wanted him to take her out of this place, so that she could never see it again, and hopefully forget about this whole nightmare of a night.

Damon watched her small, petite figure, completely in awe that she was still okay and unharmed from all the fire in her room. Well, she _looked _fine—physically, at least. But she wouldn't be if they stayed in the house for one more minute. _She must be having trouble breathing already._ He had no idea how she felt right now. _She must be scared._ He knew that of course. It would have been impossible not to. He felt it all too clearly. He had a sudden desire to comfort her. To assure her that he wouldn't let anything happen to her now.

But there was no time for that.

It all happened in a blink of an eye. Suddenly—quick as lightening—Damon was right in front of Elena; he picked her up, wrapping her protectively in his arms, and broke her bedroom window with something he picked from the ground. Glass shattering and falling everywhere, he jumped out the window with Elena in his arms.

Elena squeaked in surprise and looked around incredulously. _What?_ _How?_ She couldn't believe it. Just a second ago they were in her bedroom!

"Hey, you okay, little girl? Are you hurt?" Damon asked softly as soon as they were on the ground, looking down at her with concern written all over his face. He did a quick examination to see if she was harmed by the fire, checking to see if there were any burn marks or injuries. Nope, nothing fortunately.

The sound of his voice made her jump a little and broke her out of her thoughts. She looked up at him, but couldn't see him as a result of her hair glued all over her face from sweat and her eyes were blurry from crying so much and nodded silently. She couldn't speak, didn't want to speak. Her throat was sour from screaming too much.

But, all of a sudden, it was as though his question had made her aware of her own body and a wave of dizziness and exhaustion hit her hard and she wanted nothing more that to rest and sleep and just escape from the events of this whole night, even if for just a little while. Her eyelids closed of their own accord, but she forced them open. She wanted to see what would happen next. Where they would go. What they would do now that they were finally out of the house.

But she was tired.

So, so tired. Unable to fight it any longer, Elena closed her eyes. Her eyelids were simply too heavy to hold open a moment longer. In fact, it was as if giant rocks now held them down.

Damon watched the tiny, sleeping form in his arms. She looked so sweet and innocent and young and he felt a pang of sadness at what she'd just been through and that she would never see her parents again.

_He _would never see his only friends again.

"That's right, go to sleep honey." He said soothingly, brushing her hair out of her small, wet face; listening to her soft, warm breathing against his neck.

His words were gentle and comforting. Drowning Elena and pushing her even more into a welcoming sea of darkness.

_Without anymore nightmares_, she hoped.

**(11 years later)**

"Jenna!" Damon called out. Jenna was a housekeeper Damon had hired since he adopted Elena. It was all too easy, since he was the closest thing the Gilberts had to a family. Elena grandmother had pretty much disowned Elena's mother and had wanted nothing to do with her. Elena never knew why. So with a little effort (compulsion) Damon had managed to adopt Elena. Over the time they'd been together, they'd formed some kind of friendship and Damon just didn't want let her go and live with a couple of strangers. He didn't compel them quite as hastily as he did other people, of course. That would raise suspicion, so he'd done it step by step each day.

He wanted to repay Elena's parents for there great effort to keep his dark secret hidden.

And the reason he had hired a housekeeper was because when he arrived home that day with Elena, he had no idea what to do, and the minute she asked for food he instantly knew they needed someone around to take care of her, someone that would be able to replace the big hole her mother had left in Elena's life—even if just a little bit of it.

Because he had _no_ idea what kind of food to give her.

"Well, Elena, why don't _you_ tell me what you would like to eat and I'll get it for you?"He had said and scratched his head sheepishly, grinning at her.

And then after dinner Elena had asked she wanted to watch something, and again he had asked, "Errr, why don't you tell me what movie you want to watch and I'll get it for you?"He had raised his eyebrows hopefully, begging her with his eyes to give him a hint.

Again, when Damon had tucked her in when it was almost twelve o'clock—Elena had taken advantage of his lack of knowledge and stayed up late watching TV all night—she had grabbed the back of his shirt when he had turned to go after he had tucked her in and bid her goodnight and had asked him to read a story to her. Damon had looked at her incredulously, thinking that she was only kidding. But then he had seen the excited glint in her eyes and that look of pure anticipation on her face and sighed. She was _totally _serious. "Ummm…Elena? I don't have any books right now, but we could go to the library tomorrow and you can pick whatever you want."He had smiled at her and thought she'd let it go by then.

Ha. Fat chance.

"Oh, that's alright," Elena smiled genuinely. He breathed a sigh of relief. "You can just narrate the story!" she had clapped enthusiastically. Damon had bit back a groan and instead smiled at her, which took a lot of effort and looked more like a grimace. Then—feeling utterly ridiculous—he'd started awkwardly telling a random story, which Elena made him impersonate the characters as he yawned over and over again.

He slept somewhere near the end of the story in Elena's bed that night. She had kept trying to wake him up, giggling uncontrollably at his soft, quite snores and at how bizarre Damon was and telling him to wake up and finished the story.

But, of course, Damon wouldn't have that.

Damon smiled wistfully at those memories. It was strange that eight years had passed since that year that both really terrible and really wonderful things had happened to him and had changed his life. He shook his head; it all felt like it had happened just yesterday!

Suddenly, Jenna appeared at the doorway of his huge library.

"Did you call for me?" she asked, standing at the doorway. Jenna was not like some kind of formal servant. Nope, she treated Damon and Elena like they were her family just as they did her. Jenna _had_ no family so she never left for vacation and the big house in which Damon and Elena lived was her only home. She dressed and talked just as casually as them. And over the years, she and Elena had formed some kind of mother-daughter relationship which had made Elena slowly get over her past.

"Yeah, I just wanted to make sure everything's ready for tomorrow," he turned around in his chair and looked up from his book.

Jenna chuckled and nodded, "Yeah, everything's fine. Trust me she'll love it." She wriggled her brows at him.

"Are you sure?" Damon pressed, "Nothing missing? Wait…did you buy her the dress she liked? You didn't forget, did you? And all the other things she asked for? Please tell me everything's set up," Damon asked desperately, to which Jenna answered with an exasperated sigh.

"You worry too much," she waved a hand at him dismissively. "And honestly, this is like the hundredth time you've asked me this today," she moaned. "_You_ need to relax." She raised her eyebrows, poking a finger at him. "Have I given you any reason in the past years to doubt me?" Jenna put her hands on her hips, wearing a mock hurt expression.

Damon heaved a sigh of relief at her vague confirmation that everything was good. "Yeah. I guess you're right, sorry." he smiled apologetically. "Tomorrow's a big day!" he said eagerly, his tone was both nervous and excited at the same time.

Jenna's wide grin matched the one on Damon's face. "Yeah, can you believe it? It all seems like yesterday I was just getting her ready for her first day of school!" a moment of silence passed, each one of them caught in their own memories with sweet little Elena, until Jenna broke the silence.

"Well I gotta get back to work. Do you need anything else? Are you thirsty?" Jenna was one of the few people who knew about Damon's true identity:

That he was a vampire.

Elena had found out about him a little longer than Jenna. It was only a matter of time before she found out. Why they were always moving. And of course, why Damon's facial appearance never changed.

So Damon found it best to tell her sooner than later. Because a selfish part of him didn't want to lose Elena and if he told her while she was still young, maybe she wouldn't be that scared of him and maybe might still want to stay with him.

And so he told her…and didn't quite get the response he was expecting.

Elena had been silent for a long while. Eyes wide and mouth hung open…but yet she didn't look scared, just taken aback, really. Finally recovering from her shock, she had raised her eyebrows and had asked him, dubiously, "If you're a vampire…then…how come you don't sparkle in the sun?" crossing her arms over her chest, Elena's look was one that said, "Okay, where's the punch line?"

Damon was so stunned by the unexpected question that he froze for a few second before the humor of it all hit him and he erupted in a loud, booming guffaw that made Elena jump a little.

"Elena, seriously you have _got _to stop reading that book," he'd chuckled and shook his head. After he calmed down he'd explained all of it to her. He'd told her that vampires couldn't come out in the sun and when Elena opened her mouth to protest and question him why _he _could come out in daylight, he'd shown her the ring that protected him from the sun, and then explained that he was never going to get old, forever frozen in his twenties and then informed her about all the other vampire related stuff like how they could control minds, how they would die.

Elena stayed silent, listening throughout his whole explanation…but when he'd finished, she realized that all that didn't matter in comparison to the one question that kept tugging at her mind.

"What do you feed on?" she finally croaked out, finding her voice again and fighting back the tears that were threatening to spill over.

Damon braced himself for another long speech about what vamps fed on but one look at her pale looking face told him what she'd meant and why she suddenly looked so afraid, so he answered almost immediately. Shaking his head frantically, he quickly explained to her that he didn't kill people like other vampires did to feed, but he _did _feed on human borrowed blood. He told about that one time he'd tried feeding on animal blood…but hadn't lasted a week.

Surprisingly, Elena took all of that pretty calmly. And slowly, which confused the hell out of Damon, a broad grin had appeared on Elena's face and she suddenly hugged him fiercely. "I knew it! I knew you wouldn't kill people!" she kept squealing; and while he was astonished and bewildered that she'd accepted what he was so easily, it made him love her even more.

"Nope, thanks." Damon said, returning back to the present moment.

"Alright," with that, Jenna walked out of the room, leaving Damon back to his thoughts about tomorrow.

Elena's seventeenth birthday.

"Oh come on, please," Elena pouted at her best friend. She sat at one of the lunch tables with Bonnie. Talking animatedly about her plans for tomorrow.

Bonnie sighed, "Alright. I'll call grandma and tell her I can't come to her house today."

"Yay! This is gonna be so much fun!" Elena clapped enthusiastically like a five year old.

Bonnie grinned at her wickedly and nodded, "The best girl's night in _ever_, I'll make sure of it."

The bell rang just then, signaling the end of lunch. They both got up and started heading toward their classes together.

Elena giggled, "Make sure you tell Caroline, too. She's in you next class, right?"

"Yeah, okay I will. Bye," she gave Elena a kiss on the cheek and turned to go to her class.


End file.
